Currently produced vehicles often come equipped with OEM-installed telematics units that include wireless cellular telephony hardware that enables the telematics unit to connect with a call center and be used by the vehicle operator to carry out voice telephone calls through the telematics unit without the need for a separate mobile handset. These telematics units are integrated into the vehicle electronics such that they can send and receive data and commands to and from various other vehicle systems. As is relevant to stolen vehicle recovery and police chases of drivers evading capture, it is known to provide vehicles having these telematics units with the ability to cause the vehicle to slow down to a stop in response to a command sent to the vehicle from a call center. The process typically involves the police identifying the target vehicle, contacting the call center to request slowdown assistance, confirming the target vehicle with the call center, and then transmission by the call center of a slowdown command to the vehicle at a point in time specified by an officer in a pursuing police vehicle.
A benefit of this prior approach is that it permits the pursuing officer to specify the timing of the slowdown so that it can be done at a safe, appropriate point in time. However, the actual command to the target vehicle is issued by the call center, not the officer, so that to effect the slowdown, the officer must transmit the slowdown request to the call center which then issues the command to the vehicle. Furthermore, communication between the pursuing officer and call center may be by way of a dispatcher or PSAP such that the request must be relayed to the call center.